


World Victory Tour - Tokyo

by nanuk_dain



Series: Drift Compatible [49]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Gen, PBC (Post-Breach-Collapse), PPDC World Victory Tour, Tokyo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-15 00:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17518646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanuk_dain/pseuds/nanuk_dain
Summary: Mako Mori, the iconic survivor of the Onibaba attack, returns to Tokyo. But this time, she's not a victim.





	World Victory Tour - Tokyo

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I've decided to split the World Victory Tour up in single fics according to where they take place, instead of posting them as one huge fic. It just became way too long (as in, I'm at 15.000 words already and far from done...). I hope you don't mind - it basically means that you'll get short fics (well, and some longish ones) regularly instead of having to wait for me to finish the entire thing before I start posting ^_^ So, we all win!

_Tokyo, Japan, February 6th 2025_

 

It's strange to be back. It's not the first time she has returned to Tokyo since that fateful day of Onibaba's attack, but this time it's different. This time she has defeated her demons, she has taken her revenge. Somehow Mako feels like that changes things.

The morning is filled with several short interviews, followed by the recording of a special for a nationally popular TV show that will air that evening, and of course Mako is the reluctant star of the show. She's been called 'Tokyo's daughter' since the picture of her crying and carrying her red shoe appeared in all newspapers the morning after Onibaba's attack. And now she returns after a victorious battle against the Kaiju, she's considered a defender of the world against those very creatures that destroyed her childhood. They hail her a bit like a phoenix who rose out of the ashes. It makes Mako feel rather awkward and embarrassed, but she tries not to let it show. She knows how much it means to the survivors of the attack to see that one of them, their iconic 'daughter of Tokyo', made it and got revenge for all of them. 

Mako could never quite identify with that nickname. She didn't grow up in Tokyo, she only visited once and that proved to be the worst day of her life, so her connection to this specific city is not exactly associated with positive memories. The time she spent in the orphanage doesn't help at all to improve her ambiguous feelings for the city. In a strange way she's glad that Tokyo isn't her home town, that she didn't grow up here, that the place isn't filled with happy childhood memories. It would have made things a lot worse if Onibaba had destroyed the home of her childhood along with her family.

Mako excuses herself as soon as possible, which is in the early afternoon when the obligations for the day are over. She wants some time alone to explore the city, to look at it with the eyes of her twenty-two year old self instead of the terrified child that overlies most of her memories of Tokyo. When Mako leaves the building, she's greeted by warm sunlight and a blue sky. It's a beautiful day, one of the first sunny days after the long winter. For a moment Mako just stands in the road outside the TV station, somehow lost and overwhelmed and for a moment she's a child again and doesn't know where to go and what to do. She shakes the feeling, squares her shoulders and turns to the left where she knows lies the Kanda Myojin Shrine that she never got to visit before. As one of the few shrines untouched by Onibaba's attack, it's been on her bucket list for a while now, so she decides that's the place to start.

She wanders the streets, not exactly aimless but not determined either. She just follows her feet, all the while tracing her path on the map of the city that she memorised a long time ago. Today's Tokyo bears almost no resemblance to the one of her memories. The damage caused by the Kaiju attack has long since been repaired, houses have been rebuilt, people have returned to formerly devastated areas to live there again. There's the odd sign here or there of the attack that almost entirely destroyed Tokyo twelve years ago, but now they're incorporated into the structures and have become a part of the city. She sees groups of school children and young parents with their little ones, there are old men sitting together and talking with each other. There's the focussed rush of people of all stages of life going where they need to go. The city is pulsing with life.

It doesn't feel terrifying at all, and she feels her heartbeat calming and a weight lifting off her shoulders at that realisation. Mako can't help smiling when she continues her exploration. It really _is_ a beautiful day.

When Mako returns to the hotel where the participants of the World Victory Tour are accommodated, she doesn't go to her room, but heads for the roof terrace. She finds a spot at the far corner, away from the hustle and bustle of the other guests, and leans against the railing. The city spreads out before her, lights flickering on in the approaching dusk, making it seem vibrant and alive. 

Mako feels Sensei step up to the railing when darkness has almost fallen. He comes to stand next to her and joins her looking out over the city. He doesn't say a word, he's just there. Mako is sure that he knows what she needed to do now that they've returned to Tokyo after the closure of the Breach. She wonders if maybe he's been doing the same thing. Tokyo was not only a turning point in her life, after all.

"I think I like Tokyo." Mako says quietly in Japanese after a long moment of companionable silence, and she actually means it. It feels like a comfortable atmosphere of peace wraps around her at that revelation. It feels like she finally defeated her demons.

Out of the corner of her eye she sees Sensei smile.

**Author's Note:**

> If you feel like leaving me a wee comment, you'd totally make my day. There's a lot of time and effort going into this universe and I love to hear what you think about where I'm taking our favourite characters ^^


End file.
